LA DISCOGRAPHIE DU ROCK FRANÇAIS

PAR FRANCIS GROSSE ET BERNARD GUEFFIER

TAÏ PHONG asserted itself as one of the best representatives of French symphonic rock. Producing a well-constructed, very neat music developing around the background of continuous keyboards sounds and particularly elaborate, polished vocal harmonies, TAÏ PHONG managed to create a music both accessible and striking without falling into the trap of affectation. A music which can be classed in the category of sophisticated rock made popular by Anglo-Saxon groups such as YES, B.J.H or GENESIS.

TANGERINE'S music fits into the trend of slightly California-influenced melodic rock expressing itself by this pronounced liking for beautiful vocal harmonies and a cool, fluid atmosphere. A slight influence from some Franco-Quebecer rock groups like HARMONIUM or BEAU DOMMAGE can also be felt. TANGERINE offered a music which was always beautiful, serene and spontaneous with -on the first album- Valérie BTESH's clear and crystal-like voice and Marc DONAHUE's superb flute rising and soaring above it. Their second album, recorded after the departure of Valérie BTESH, proposes a music more turned towards Californian rock.

The grouping of former members of MARTIN CIRCUS (Gérard PISANI, Paul-Jean BOROWSKI) with Jean-Pierre ALARCEN and some jazz musicians (Michel GRAILLIER, Marc BERTAUX) in an attempt to play a commercial rock inspired by MARTIN CIRCUS's experiences.

This group was greatly influenced by groups such as ATOLL or MONA LISA, with added elements from a certain melodic hard rock. It plays an energetic, forceful and agressive progressive hard rock, inflamed by the singer's vocals and propelled along by an iron-like rhythmic section.

Only issued in limited quantity, this self-produced album was realised by a group from Lyon. It proposes an entirely instrumental music built up around the melodies created by the two keyboardists (piano, mellotrons, synthesizers) and Patrick TILLMAN' s violin (ex ZAO and FORGAS). Very beautiful, strong, energetic themes along with some more melancholic, lyrical ones during which the piano develops an intimist, romantic atmosphere with an old-fashioned end of the century flavour and a SATIE-like charm. A very good album with no follow-up.

The former TOTAL ISSUE double bass and bass guitar player has launched himself into a solo career pursueing a certain musical course opened up by this group, that of "jazz folk music". Henri TEXIER, playing the Arabian lute, flute, piano, percussion instruments and his double bass, has managed to impose both his very melodious music and his very original musical colours.

An excellent progressive rock album made by a four-piece group. This group offers a very original, elaborate, powerful symphonic rock, evocative of GENESIS (at the time of "Wind and Wuthering"), P.F.M and the modern English progressive rock school (MARILLION, IQ, PENDRAGON). Their compositions are superb with complex developments, refined arrangements and great vocals and a perfect instrumental work. A "must" for all progressive rock fans.

The first productions from a newcomer in the crowded world of keyboardists whose music is based on a dreamlike and suggestive atmosphere created and developed by synthesizers. He sensitively and intelligently exploits every different part of their range to the full in order to produce a personal music which remains off the beaten track and away from the worn-out stereotypes inherent in this musical style.

A long-awaited album from a musician who had always remained in the shade of well-known musicians and studios. He was a former member of ZORGONES and MAGMA'S first bassist for a short while before becoming their producer and creating the Thélème label. In 1979, accompanied by numerous guests (David ROSE, Amanda PARSON, Francis MOZE etc) he made his first solo album on which he plays different bass guitars and guitars and offers an excellently worked-out progressive rock bursting with ideas and spontaneity. This album features four superb themes which are in turn ethereal as they wrap themselves around the choruses from Amanda PARSON and Lisa BOIS, tormented, mad, finally drifting towards the most delirious nightmare. One of the best progressive rock albums, superbly produced, mixed and interpreted.

Another solitary musical alchemist who like Robert WYATT refused to be just a drummer. Coming from the world of jazz he produced a first mythical album made up of collages, short, strange and excentric pieces before making three other albums which confirmed his liking for a music defying classification and drawing on jazz, rock, classical music, experimental and contemporary music to create an original, unclassifiable result based around strange, delirious, beautiful, fragile, intangible themes evocative of SATIE and certain other contemporary composers. One of the best current musicians and composers.

A big band in the same vein as jazz rock groups of the 70's like CHICAGO and B.S.T with a slight Afro-Cuban influence. An energetic, rhythmical music based on the riffs, breaks in rhythm and interventions by the brass section and on the harsh singer's voice.

A guitarist from that new generation of French guitarists who use their technicality to create an intelligent music and he avoids the pitfalls of gratuitous demonstrations to follow an original, caustic and deeply inventive music full of energy and punch.

The return of Daniel PABOEUF who was a member of MARQUIS DE SADE, SAX PUSTULS and half of ANCHES DOO TOO COOL DUO. He come back to the limelight with this new group where the surprising and happy trills of his saxophone enliven this whimsical rock which combines many different influences. This group uses humour and derision in the manner of SAX PUSTULS and is fond of distorted reworkings.

A singer with a warm, deep voice who punctuates his songs with his "vocal percussions", that is to say rhythmic onomatopoeia, and who offers songs based on music with a jazzy, Arabacized or Mediterranean sound. His deep, gentle, colourful, captivating and original voice evolves along and soars above themes developed by musicians who are successful in enhancing and setting off his lyrics and vocals. After having been accompanied by the group ARCANE V, Antoine TOMÉ played with some talented guests such as D.LOCKWOOD, P.LEMERCIER, M.PLATON, P.CARATINI etc. His productions are full of originality and character. With every album he asserts himself as one of the best current singers with a totally original and unclassifiable style combining songs, jazz, rock, exotic music and electric and acoustic music.

MAGMA's former bassist, now a renowned session musician, has recorded a single which continues in the same vein as "Udü Wüdü". It offers a very hard, very forceful, energetic and inhuman music propelled along by his throbbing bass guitar and based on a martial rhythm with a wild sound. A musical universe close to MAGMA's.

A keyboardist who works alone from the beaten track of floating music and who plays a more personal music based on a search for atmosphere and on the beauty to be found in melodies and tones. Henry TORGUE creates a pictorial, poetic, suggestive, incredibly beautiful and original music, full of imagery, which develops a succession of colours, delicate and contrasting sounds. His music possesses that kind of grandiose beauty, lyrical and sensual inspiration, spellbinding charm and unchanging majesty like the works of this century's great composers (SATIE, DEBUSSY). He can be considered as their worthy successor.

An attempt by four old hands at French jazz to invent an original music drawing on their past as jazz musicians and on the ideas developed by rock. It was a successful attempt because their music, full of a certain Latin charm from the Mediterranean origins of some of the group members, intelligently combined rock's energy and jazz's warmth and swing with an extra lyrical and refreshing Latin touch to form a refined cocktail. A certain aspect of undemonstrative "jazz-rock" with real song in turn swinging or dreamy. An excellent album during which the flutist Chris HAYWARD and the two guitarists Georges LOCATELLI and Michou LIBRETTI show off their talents to advantage.

The singer Yves SIMON's former group recorded three jazz-rock albums which were initially very technical and demonstrative in the same vein as R.T.F but which later became more refined and personalized, more lyrical and impressionistic based on a search for melodies and developing a suggestive atmosphere with a fragile beauty evocative at times of BRAND X. The contribution made by David ROSE, playing his violin with finesse and elegance, reinforces this lyrical emphasis.

This record gathers many well known and very talented musicians (Didier MALHERBE, François CAHEN, Didier LOCKWOOD, André JAUME) for a new improvised French music. A music which drifts between free jazz, contemporary music and jazz-rock.

Two sides of improvised music interpreted by a trio -sax, bass/double bass, vibraphone/percussions- which likes shrill sounds, musical drifts and which creates through an onrush of notes the seeds of the new French "Free music".

Formed from the ashes of INTROVERSION, TRAVELLING offered a music greatly inspired by SOFT MACHINE at the time of its first two albums. Despite this very strong influence, their music, sung in French with a very WYATT-like modulation, possessed undeniable qualities with very attractive keyboard playing which developed a highly complex and elaborate melodic and musical architecture. A very good album of SOFT MACHINE style rock.

Another facet of French symphonic rock. Like TEN C.C or B.J.H, TREPONEM PAL pays great attention to the form and presentation of its music which is very highly polished, constructed and arranged. The group shows a great fondness for rich, perfectly placed vocal harmonies, beautiful, immediate melodies and complex instrumental passages.

One of the first French groups to have foretold the arrival of the rock movement in France in the early seventies. Initially formed by three old hands on the French musical scene, the group suffered the departure of their first guitarist, Alain RENAUD, after they recorded their debut single. They did not find their bearings again until the renowned jazz musician François JEANNEAU and the guitarist Mimi LORENZINI joined them. TRIANGLE offered a rock drifting between slightly progressive rock and a more commercial sound destined to appeal to the masses. Their albums, however, feature some excellent tracks with very good instrumental passages during which François JEANNEAU shows off his talent on the flute or sax.

A group with a nucleus formed by Alan JACK CIVILISATION'S former bassist, Richard FONTAINE and Dona TREATON and Eddy EFFIRA which played a cool, slightly bluesy music with a distinct Californian influence.

Flute player Michel EDELIN's group started playing a jazzy pop music. This music is mostly built around the flute's twirling notes and fiery flowishes which evoke JETHRO TULL at the time of its first album or JADE WARRIOR at the beginning of its career.

Former keyboardist with TAURUS V, Alain TRISTAN recorded a solo album on which he offers a slightly progressive rock, pleasantly sung in French with a certain vocal sophistication. The instrumentation is efficient and forceful. This music is in the same vein as TAURUS V, but with a lesser hard rock influence.

Founded by André CECCARELLI, TROC included the former OBLIVION EXPRESS singer Alex LIGERTWOOD and the bassist Jannick TOP before he joined MAGMA. Their music tended towards a very powerful, energetic, polished funky jazz-rock propelled along by Jannick TOP's omnipresent bass guitar and Alex LIGERTWOOD's very unusual voice. Excellent, dense, strong themes and a very good re-working of "Old Man River". A very good album.

On its first single, TROISIEME OEIL offers a powerful, instrumentally and technically perfect music, with a strong progressive sound and propelled along by a rigorous rhythmic section. The instrumental piece "Les mutants" shows off the group's musical qualities; this theme develops a very well-constructed, very elaborate music with cutting rhythmic progressions and percussive, tense interventions by the guitar.

This line up of six musicians was a result of the meeting between musician Maurice BOGUET and a poet from the Franche-Comté, Alex ABOULADZÉ. It plays a music which combines progressive rock and folk music from the Franche-Comté, tinged with Alex ABOULADZÉ's cold and bitterly melancholy lyrics. Some instrumental sequences and bright spots momentarily temper this dark atmosphere created and amplified by Maurice BOGUET's deep and sad voice. A good album.

A group founded by Alain RENAUD, after he left TRIANGLE, with Didier BATARD (future member of HELDON) and Clément BAILLY (future member of MAGMA). A traditional trio, guitar, bass and drums influenced by CREAM and playing a fairly average, fairly impersonal rock despite Alain RENAUD's unusual guitar playing.